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Oxford residents demonstrate against incineration

Oxford FoE members and others outside County HallMembers of Oxford Friends of the Earth and other local residents attended Oxfordshire County Council's public waste strategy consultation on Wednesday 15 September at County Hall, Oxford, after demonstrating outside the meeting beforehand with placards saying "Zero Waste Strategy Now!" and "Oxfordshire Against Incineration".

Oxford Friends of the Earth are calling for the Council to: adopt a zero waste strategy[1]; set high recycling and composting targets (50% by 2010 and 75% by 2015); write a flexible strategy to allow progressive improvements in waste reduction, re-use, recycling and composting including municipal in-vessel composting. The Council should reject incineration and if necessary consider the use of local, small-scale mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) for residual waste, with the residues from this process going to landfill, not for fuel pellets or Refuse Derived Fuel as it's known.

Andrew Wood, from Oxford Friends of the Earth said:
"Oxfordshire needs to adopt a Zero Waste Strategy - like other Councils - to reduce waste, promote reuse and maximise recycling. The County Council should reject burning Oxfordshire's rubbish in an incinerator. Incineration produces toxic pollution that potentially threatens human health, it undermines recycling and it's bad for climate change."

He added:
"Legislation for the treatment of waste is rapid changing including a possible EU directive on Bio-Waste that would require composting of biodegradable materials like kitchen and garden waste. It would be a reckless gamble with council taxpayers' money to enter into the long term contracts for incineration in these circumstances. The Council could end up compensating an incinerator operator and be required to build composting facilities anyway."

About 30 members of the public attended the meeting, and the demonstration was covered by the Oxford Mail.

Footnotes

[1] Local authorities like Bath and North East Somerset, Braintree and Lewes are already supporting a 10 point Zero Waste Charter. Oxfordshire County Council are currently in the process of consulting the public about their waste strategy.